


What Are Brothers for?

by Freedoms_Champion



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Brotherly Affection, First Aid, Gen, Harry worries about his family, Mild Hurt/Comfort, No shipping, Post-Dead Beat, stormy night, struggle to be human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:35:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25661461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freedoms_Champion/pseuds/Freedoms_Champion
Summary: On a dark and stormy night, Chicago's only professional wizard should be having a peaceful evening with a book. His dog and his cat are close by and no dark magic has been about.Harry can't relax, because Thomas isn't home.
Relationships: Harry Dresden & Thomas Raith
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	What Are Brothers for?

Thunder rumbled distantly overhead as Harry set his book on the arm of the couch. He’d been reading by candlelight for several hours now and he was starting to get sleepy. Mister, the bobtailed grey tomcat who kindly shared his basement apartment with the only wizard in Chicago’s phone book, took a moment to sniff the book as it settled next to him.

Normally, this would be a great night for Harry. He didn’t have any jobs running, he wasn’t injured from an epic mess, and he had a good book to keep him company on a stormy night. Try as he might, though, Harry couldn’t stop a pit of worry from growing in his gut.

Thomas should have been home hours ago.

Harry sighed and scratched Mouse behind the ears. The puppy who had stowed away with him had grown most of a foot and wouldn’t fit in his pocket anymore. Leggy and awkward, the dog looked back at him with serious dark eyes. Mouse knew something was wrong too. It had taken him most of an hour to join Harry on the couch; he’d kept trotting to the door and sniffing it as if hoping Thomas was about to walk through.

“He’s not in any trouble,” Harry said to the puppy, hoping the sound of his own voice would settle his concerns. “He knows how to take care of himself; we’ve seen him do it. If something was wrong, he’d take care of it.”

Flames crackled in the background. The quiet words hung in the air, doing nothing to make Harry feel better. Thomas was the only family he had. There was no way he’d be able to go back to life as usual if something happened and he couldn’t save his brother.

Lightning flashed in the tiny windows, followed by a louder crack of thunder. A second after that, raindrops began pattering down. Harry could only hear them dimly through the ancient house above him.

Harry didn’t hear the door unlocking, but it would have been hard to miss the almighty scraping of it being forced open. He’d replaced the door himself after zombies pounded it down, but he hadn’t done a good job. Every time the door opened, it sounded like the apartment was under siege.

Since it usually was, Harry didn’t mind that too much.

He hurled himself off the couch, grabbing his blasting rod from the tin near the door and gather will, just in case he was under attack. Mister put his ears back, but otherwise showed no reaction. Mouse wiggled off the couch and tumbled gracelessly to the floor, shook himself off, and trotted over. He had his ears up, without any signs of aggression or fear.

Harry had seen the lunatic dog bark at rampaging vampires and demons and was slowly getting the sense that Mouse had a knack for knowing when trouble was afoot. The lack of reaction from his housemates relieved him a little, but he didn’t release his will.

The door finally opened enough to admit a person and the flickering light revealed a man. Right around six feet tall, with curly black hair and pale skin, Thomas turned heads wherever he went. It was part of being a White Court vampire, an incubus.

Or at least, he did when he wasn’t drawn and grey and covered with his own blood.

“Shit! What happened to you?” Harry demanded, rushing forward a step to support Thomas. His blasting rod clattered unheeded to the ground.

“It’s nothing. Quit fussing,” Thomas mumbled. He let Harry take most of his weight anyway and slumped in the armchair Harry led him to.

Harry forced the door shut, noticing water starting to soak the steps that led down to his door, and went back to examine Thomas’ wounds. There was a deep cut in his upper arm, oozing blood that was slightly pink and pearly. It looked like someone had stabbed him.

“Keep talking, tell me what happened,” Harry ordered. He didn’t have much medical skill, but he’d been hurt enough times to know it was important to stay lucid.

It was only a few steps to the kitchen to get some water for the teapot by the fire. After that was started, Harry ducked through his room to the bathroom for his first-aid kit. When he came back, Thomas had pushed himself up slightly.

“It’s really not a big deal,” he said again, grimacing. “You know it’ll heal in no time.”

“The hell I know that. I’ve seen you heal before. Something like this would have been gone in the time it took you to walk home. I know this didn’t happen in my neighborhood; I would have noticed!” Harry snapped. “Take your shirt off.”

Thomas rolled his eyes and obeyed, fumbling the buttons and wincing as he pulled the sleeve down his injured arm. Harry looked away, hoping to hide the concern that had just gotten bigger. He’d been sharing the apartment with Thomas long enough to know what the silver flecks in his brother’s normally grey eyes meant.

To cover it up, Harry got busy opening the first-aid kit and spreading out what he would need. Antibiotics weren’t important; Thomas had a vampire immune system and Harry needed them for when he got hurt (again). He couldn’t put in stitches, but he could clean and cover the wound until Thomas did heal.

Harry refused to listen to the whisper in his mind that he might not heal. Maybe Thomas wasn’t in the best condition because of his struggle to control his Hunger and live like everyone else, but there was no way he wouldn’t have enough energy to get better. No way was he going to accept something like that.

Once the water was warm enough, Harry cleaned out the knife wound. Thomas’ skin was cool to the touch and Harry felt a scowl starting to form. It probably wasn’t from blood loss, but he didn’t know what to do if Thomas’ Hunger got the best of him.

“I was stupid,” Thomas said quietly. “I wasn’t keeping track of things around me. This girl came up to me, you know how it happens. Her boyfriend didn’t like it, but I didn’t see him moving until it was too late. He got me with the knife, I put him down a second later, and that was the end of it. I came straight back here.”

Harry focused on making sure the gauze pad was perfectly aligned and pretended he hadn’t heard. Thomas’ voice already held enough self-loathing; he didn’t need to be reminded that Harry was listening.

After it was taped down, Harry nudged Thomas’ good arm.

“It’s not your fault. If that guy was insecure enough to stab someone his girlfriend was looking at, he deserves a lot worse than what I know you gave him. Stop being an idiot and let yourself heal.”

He wasn’t sure that was the reason, but Thomas had done it before. Harry shivered slightly as he remembered that night, dragging his brother from the Deeps where they had almost died. He hadn’t even been sure Thomas was alive for a moment.

There was still warm water, so Harry used a clean bit of gauze to clean blood off Thomas’ arm and shoulder. His skin tingled as the water dried on it.

“I’m glad you’re my brother. There’s no one else I know in this world who would take care of something like this. I wish I’d told you sooner.”

“I think, if you’d told me sooner, I would have done more than punch you in the face,” Harry replied. He hoped Thomas would accept the joke without tumbling deeper into angst.

“That’s because you’re a paranoid asshole,” Thomas said with a small laugh.

Harry sat back on his heels, reaching out to drop the gauze in the fireplace. The silver flecks were gone, and a little bit of color was coming back into Thomas’ face. He breathed an internal sigh of relief.

“Jerk. I just patched you up and you’re making fun of my survival skills? Shut up or I won’t make you something to eat.”

Mister jumped into Thomas’ lap as Harry packed up the first-aid supplies and began purring.

Thunder rolled and the rain came down harder, but it was a distant concern. Harry’s family was safe at home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Have a great and safe time.


End file.
